


Highways

by Lulu_The_Real_Slytherpuff



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Australia, Alternate Universe - Not Hockey Player(s), Auston is the new farmhand, First Meetings, M/M, Meet-Cute, Mitch is a farmer, Mitch lives in Outback Queensland, you can guess where this might lead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-29
Updated: 2018-11-29
Packaged: 2019-09-02 02:31:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16777873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lulu_The_Real_Slytherpuff/pseuds/Lulu_The_Real_Slytherpuff
Summary: Mitch’s ears perked up at the news of the new help’s arrival. Things had been tough since Chris left, and it’s not an easy task getting someone to come work for a farm off the Cunningham Highway thousands of kilometres from the big cities and 600km from the nearest town with a grocery store. You had to be willing to tough the isolation and the hot, humid heat of Outback Queensland. It wasn’t exactly appealing, that’s for sure.





	Highways

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all, 
> 
> I think this might be the first fic I've written that doesn't need any warnings!
> 
> This story is set in Outback Queensland so there is a lot of Aussie slang in here - I know that quite a lot of you might not know what certain characters are referring to which is why I've popped a glossary in the end notes.
> 
> If you would like to see more in this universe then let me know :)
> 
> Enjoy

Hot sun filtered in through the curtained windows and roused Mitch from his sleep. The dusty fan in his bedroom swung around wildly and groaned as it spun on its rusty nail and blew the hot air around Mitch’s bedroom. With his covers wrapped around his ankles and a thick sheen of sweat coating his body, Mitch let out a loud groan, not too much unlike his fan, and lifted himself from his bed.

Outside, his father was already sat a-top _Shelagh,_ stubbie in one hand and a durry in the other as he fiddled with the controls on the old green harvester. Paul Marner was a hard-worker, one of the top farmers in the Southeast, but even he needed a beer and ciggy every once in a while. Especially when _Shelagh_ wasn’t cooperating with him. Paul popped the stubbie down on the floor and wiped the sweat from his brow, his beady eyes scanning the old Queenslander, and sheds for the brown hair of his youngest son. He was going to need help with this one.

“Mitchy!” Paul belted out in hopes that his son would hear him, what he wouldn’t give to have Chris back with them too. But his eldest had set out for Goondiwindi several weeks back to find work there. Why he’d wanted to leave the solitude of the Marner Farm was beyond Paul.

“Yeah Pops?” Mitchy’s head popped out the back door of the Queenslander and upon seeing his father take a long drag of his durry and point to _Shelagh,_ he ran as fast as he could to him.

“She taken a tumble, Pops?”

“Bloody things gon’an fucked ‘er engine up,” Paul said as he climbed off the harvester and Mitch climbed on.

“How’d she manage that?”

“Tha’s what I’m tryna work out. Gotta get ‘er fixed up before the new fella comes in today.”

Mitch’s ears perked up at the news of the new help’s arrival. Things had been tough since Chris left, and it’s not an easy task getting someone to come work for a farm off the Cunningham Highway thousands of kilometres from the big cities and 600km from the nearest town with a grocery store. You had to be willing to tough the isolation and the hot, humid heat of Outback Queensland. It wasn’t exactly appealing, that’s for sure.

“Oh yeah, what time’s he arriving? He’s a yank isn’t he?” Mitch asked his father as he unscrewed the panel underneath the controls and let out a small “gotcha” as he saw one of the wires was bent.

“Bout midday I reckon. Poor bugger’s not gonna know wha’s hit him. He’s from Arizona or some place like tha’,” Paul said.

*

The air grew thicker and hotter the further Auston drove along the highway. He’d given up on blasting the air con in the old Nissan Patrol he’d managed to get his hands on, and had instead given up and suffered the humidity. There wasn’t another gas station for miles.

His fingers tapped an unrehearsed rhythm on the steering wheel as he took in the world around him. Red dirt and gum trees, kangaroos threatening to jump out in front of his truck, even a brown snake laying dormant outside the pie shop at Auston’s last stop. A long, narrow road ahead of him littered by thousands of dead animals, kangaroos, wallabies, wombats… other stuff. Auston had tried to study up as much as he could about his new country. The strange animals, beautiful fauna, extremely racist past that Auston hadn’t realised was a thing but was.

It hadn’t clicked until now that the Marner Farm really was in the middle of nowhere. He’d driven for hours from Brisbane Airport in the middle of a busy city surrounded with skyscrapers and traffic, through Toowoomba which wasn’t as big but still busy, a place with small shops but lots of the old wooden houses and finally, onto the Cunningham Highway where there was no people or traffic or skyscrapers for miles and miles. Reality hit and Auston felt a sudden pang of guilt as he remembered how he’d left his family back in America only two days after receiving the job. He doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to forget the look on his father’s face when Auston had told him that he was moving to Australia to be a farmhand instead of completing his final year of pre-med. But adventure was calling and Auston had watched Crocodile Dundee way too much to be deterred from such a significant change in lifestyle.

*

The heat had grown throughout the day and by the time a muddied old patrol drove up the dirt-covered driveway, Mitch was ready to call it a day and grab a beer out the fridge.

“Looks like the new fella’s here,” Mitch hears his Ma say as she hangs the washing on the line.

“Fuckin’ hell he must be a yank if he’s driven that shit down here,” Mitch says, laughing.

The patrol halts to a stop, a dust cloud forming behind it and Mitch watches as the tallest, buffest man he has ever seen, jumps from the truck.

“Uh, hi, I’m Auston,” the new fella, Auston, says as he walks over to Bonnie and Mitch. He smiles at Bonnie with all white teeth before looking at Mitch.

“Mitch,” Mitch says, holding out his hand. “Welcome to the farm.”

*

Mitch shakes his hand and lets out a big grin.

“What’s with the patrol?” he says, pointing to Auston’s truck.

“Lady at the shop said it was good for long drives.”

Mitch lets out a giggle and something forms in the pit of Auston’s stomach.

“Right-O, Aus, first rule about the Outback,” Mitch turns to face him and looks at him dead in the eye. “Holden is where it’s at.”

“Duly noted.”

“C’mon, I’ll show to your bedroom before Ma cracks the shits at me,” Mitch says, gesturing to the wooden house behind him, and Auston takes a moment to watch as Mitch walks up the stairs and into the house.

Something tells him that he’s really going to like it here.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you all enjoyed!
> 
> Kudos are always loved and any comments or constructive criticism is always welcome and much appreciated :)
> 
> As mentioned earlier, here is a glossary of some terms that you may be unfamiliar with :)
> 
> Shelagh (She-lah) - female name.
> 
> Stubbie - (Australia, New Zealand) A small beer bottle with a distinctive squat shape.
> 
> Durry - a cigarette.
> 
> Queenslander - The quintessential Queenslander is a single detached house made of timber with a corrugated iron roof located on a separate block of land.
> 
> Goondiwindi - Goondiwindi is a town and a locality in the Goondiwindi Region, Queensland, Australia.
> 
> Cunninghamd Highway - The Cunningham Highway is a 327-kilometre (203 mi) national highway located in south-eastern Queensland, Australia.
> 
> Toowoomba - Toowoomba is a city in the Darling Downs region of southern Queensland, Australia


End file.
